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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival
material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at
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The Eloise Vaughn Papers, 1996-2008, consists chiefly of materials documenting the
publication and promotion of the book Keep Singing: Two Mothers, Two Sons, and Their
Fight Against Jesse Helms, which chronicles the loss of her and co-author Patsy Clarke's
sons to AIDS in the early 1990s. There are also some materials related to the grassroots
organization Mothers Against Jesse In Congress (MAJIC) that they created to thwart
Senator Helms' reelection in 1996. Acquired as part of the Southern Historical Collection.

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Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants,
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Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Eloise Vaughn Papers #5602, Southern Historical Collection,
The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Eloise Vaughn in September 2014 (Acc. 102094).

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Eloise Vaughn and Patsy Clarke, two white women, co-authored the book, Keep Singing:
Two Mothers, Two Sons, and Their Fight Against Jesse Helms, chronicling the loss of
their sons to AIDS in the early 1990s. Vaughn's son Mark died in 1990. Clarke's son,
also named Mark, died in 1994. In the years after her son's death, Vaughn worked to
provide support to many mothers who had lost children to the disease, which is how
she met Clarke.

Patsy Clarke and her husband Harry Clarke, until he was killed in a 1987 plane crash,
had been prominent Republican party members and long-time friends of Senator Jesse
Helms. Following the death of her son, Patsy Clarke wrote a letter to Helms asking
him to soften his public anti-gay stance. Helms responded saying, "I wish he had not
played Russian roulette in his sexual activity." The letter angered Clarke and galvanized
her drive to organize opposition to Helms. Clarke and Vaughn wrote the book and started
a grassroots organization called Mothers Against Jesse in Congress (MAJIC) to thwart
his reelection to the United States Senate in 1996.

The Eloise Vaughn Papers, 1996-2008, consists chiefly of materials relating to the
publication of Keep Singing: Two Mothers, Two Sons, and Their Fight Against Jesse
Helms, which chronicles the loss of her and co-author Patsy Clarke's sons to AIDS
in the early 1990s. Collection materials include a manuscript draft, press kits and
clippings, files on the subsequent book tour, speeches, letters and cards in response
to the book, and copies of Clarke's first letter to Helms and his response. There
is also background information on Jesse Helms, including newspaper clippings and member
and donation files relating to Mothers Against Jesse In Congress (MAJIC), a grassroots
organization Vaughn and Clark created to thwart Helms' reelection to the United States
Senate. Cassettes of radio interviews, 2001 and undated, are included, as well as
a videotape of a 1996 commercial for MAJIC.